There’s nothing like a quality print to hang on the wall, or to give away as a gift.

I like to capture images and have them framed (although I often don’t seem to get around to it very quickly). For many small prints the main name print shops are fine. Kodak, Jessops Photobox are good services and there are loads of others. Apple has a particularly good service built in to its .mac/mobileme service.

These services are fine for most jobs, but remember that even these will benefit greatly from monitor calibration. But for those really great photographs there are professional services that are worth considering because they really will present your work in the best possible light.

Back in the days of film it was possible for amateurs to use prolabs when they needed. Working in digital media makes it even easier. Modern print machines are just as cost effective with one print than with several. Images can be sent in on discs or uploaded using FTP services.

The Difference

These professional services use very fine machinery and printers that really do provide images of great contrast, were highlight and shadow detail is dealt with superbly. Many of these services will give you details of the colour setting that their machines use and these can be fed into your monitor calibration software. Some will even have profile settings available for download to put into Photoshop for use with different machines and different types of paper. If this sounds complicated then it isn’t. Once you’ve mastered calibration this is just a question of following the instructions.

One of the biggest advantages of these services is that they output images to really fine quality papers that are truly long lasting. Back in the days of the chemical darkroom it was important to work out whether your print would look better on a matte or a gloss paper. Then there was supergloss and so on. Well, these papers still exist and the professional services will allow you to choose a paper, finish and texture that you think will really suit your photographs.

Many websites will have images online that give you a feel for the finish and the texture of the papers they offer. Some will even send you samples of paper through the post.

Photographic Paper v Inkjet

Funnily enough, in this digital age, the best prints can still come from photo-sensitive paper. The print machines expose the paper using fine light emitting diodes and the print is then developed using a chemical process. Quality inkjets on quality papers can give stunning results. But the best results will come from photographic paper which produces deeper. almost three dimensional prints, with lots of glorious shadow detail.

These services really are worth exploring if you want to print off a special image. You will have seen some stunning images in photographic galleries. Well, you can access this kind of quality over the net.

While there are a number of companies in this field I will give you links to two (others can be found via. Google).

The Dot Foundry

This is a fine company based in Bridgend in South Wales. I learnt of the Dot Foundry through this blog _ I can’t remember who it was who recommended it, but thanks again!

The Dot Foundry uses the best ink jet printers and outputs onto the best quality papers. Lots of information is given about the paper they use and they are happy to mail you samples if need be.

The Foundry will also mount and frame your prints for you as will most mainstream services. But you should see a real difference here.

The Print Space

The Dot Foundry is a kind of homely service. The Print Space is al altogether different beast. Based in Dalston, East London, the Print Space offers the amateur a state-of-the art service.

Print Space uses very fine quality ink jet printing but also offers the photographic process mentioned above. These are known as C-Types. You’ll pay a little more for the photographic process, but not that much.

A 16 by 12 ink print will cost £8.22 and a C-Type £8.86.

The price differentials change as the size gets bigger and they differ with the quality of paper used. But then this isn’t something you will use every day.

At the premium end of thins a 16 by 12 print, mounted and framed in aluminium will cost about £75. This compares very well to online services such as LuLu and your getting a really quality product that has been lovingly handled.

The Print Space site features lots of tutorials and web videos which certainly make it a lot easier to understand what is going on.

So, there you have it. If you’ve got a great photo that can stand being printed to exhibition standard, why not have a think about it. These services produce absolutely stunning images.